NEWS
Brilliant future
Imaging biomedical samples could become cheaper with advanced white light laser
A COLLABORATION of four UK
partners could boost laser manufacturing
and biomedical imaging
technology within the UK. The
Technology Strategy Board is
spending part of its £7m fund for
lighting, lasers and displays on a
research project to improve
the systems used for imaging biomedical
samples.
The WhiteLase project
addresses the need for highbrightness,
efficient visible laser
illumination sources by developing
advanced white light (supercontinuum)
fibre lasers and their
applications within biomedical
imaging.
It is being led by Fianium, a fibre
laser company from Southampton
which focuses on the manufacture
and development of ultra-fast,
high-power laser systems covering
a wavelength range from the UV
(240nm) to infrared (2500nm).
Lasers within the visible region
of the spectrum are used in
microscopy and flow cytometry for
imaging biomedical samples whose
components have been labelled
with fluorescent dyes. However,
different dyes are excited by different
wavelengths so up to 10
discrete lasers can be required to
get a comprehensive image of a
single sample.
Such a system may cost up to
£600,000, putting them beyond the
budget of most research facilities.
Usually they are located only at core
centres, which can slow up the processing
of samples.
To overcome these drawbacks,
the WhiteLase project aims to produce
a single laser that can
generate a wide band of wavelengths
of sufficient brightness.
If produced successfully, the
white laser will offer any colour of
light and therefore provide additional
functionality over the existing
discrete lasers but at a fraction
of the cost. The result could make
high-end imaging systems affordable
to many medical centres and
research institutes, allowing processing
and research to accelerate.
8
Fianium is leading the field in ultra-fast high-power laser systems covering a wavelength range from UV to infrared
‘The WhiteLase goals are
extremely challenging, but by forming
a technology partnership
between Fianium and the Centre for
Photonics and Photonic Materials
at Bath University, the chances of
success are high,’ said John
Clowes, R&D head at Fianium. ‘We
are being driven by the need of end
users, so the goals are commercially
driven.’
In this case Fianium is working
with Genetix of New Milton, Hampshire,
which supplies equipment for
cell identification, and Edinburgh
Instruments, manufacturers of
steady state and time resolved fluorescence
spectrometers.
Supercontinuum lasers were
first developed in the 1970s and
use an ultrafast pulse of high intensity
at a single wavelength within
the infrared spectrum. Work in the
1990s showed that when the pulse
is injected into a photonic crystal
fibre it spreads further into the
infrared and also into the visible
region due to the high intensity of
the pulse interacting with the silica
of the fibre. So a one-micron wave-
length pulse can be used to generate
a whole spectrum from 400nm
to 2.5 micron.
With such a broad spectrum of
wavelengths available, the theory is
that, by applying the right filters, a
single supercontinuum laser could
provide all the wavelengths needed
to excite all the dyes within a biomedical
sample. This would obviate
the need for different lasers that are
now required for the job, cutting
costs dramatically.
To approach this solution, Fianium
and its partners are focusing on
specific objectives. ‘The project has
two main goals,’ said Clowes. ‘The
first is to scale the power of the
supercontinuum in the visible
region, to approach a 10-fold
increase in spectral brightness on
the current state-of-art.
‘The second is to push the
wavelength down even further. At
the moment we cover the spectrum
from 400nm to 2.5 micron. We want
to get down to 300nm in the ultra
violet region.’
The hope is that this will be
achieved with new photonic crystal
fibres from Bath and new ultrafast
laser sources from Fianium. Clowes
regards the support of the Technology
Strategy Board as crucial to
such progress.
‘We’re a relatively young company,’
he said. ‘The laser industry is
highly dynamic and we can’t afford
long-term projects, nor could we
afford the half a million pounds it
would cost to fund such high-quality
research at Bath, especially
when there is no guarantee of a
successful outcome for the
research.’
The Technology Strategy
Board’s support means that Fianium
needs only fund about 25 per
cent of the university costs.
‘We couldn’t embark on a project
like this without the TSB
funding,’ said Clowes. ‘Likewise
Genetix and Edinburgh Instruments
would otherwise just have to wait
for this research to occur but now
they can influence the direction and
gain access to early prototypes to
help them get a couple of years
ahead of their competitors.’
Max Glaskin
the EnGIneeR 15–28 SEPTEMBER 2008
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